A little creek goes a long way: Wolf Creek Trail opens

A one-mile stretch of trail along Wolf Creek has opened for public use.

The creation of the trail was made possible through the efforts of the Wolf Creek Community Alliance, the City of Grass Valley and various other public and private property donations and easements. It is the first phase in a series of planned trails along Wolf Creek that call for pedestrian bridges over Little Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek.

On Saturday, Grass Valley Mayor Howard Levine, along with members of the Wolf Creek Community Alliance, led the first group of hikers along the trail.

Animal artwork provided by Grass Valley Charter School students helps to mark the way of the trail, which begins at the Grass Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant, 556 Freeman Lane, and ends at the Wolf Creek Commons co-housing at Freeman Lane and McKnight Way.

The trail passes the portion of Little Wolf Creek where a massive sinkhole formed in January of 2017, and runs along a portion of the service road made during the repair process.

"We don't own the sinkhole property as of yet," Mayor Howard Levine said to attendees of the hike. "We're negotiating with the property owner. We're very close on the cost of the land."

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The Wolf Creek Trail continues beyond the Little Wolf Creek sinkhole property, then follows a service trail created during the homeless camp clean up in the summer of 2016, which was the impetus for the creation of the Wolf Creek Trail.

City officials hope providing public access to Wolf Creek will keep people from creating encampments in the Wolf Creek drainage.

"We pulled 10,000 pounds of trash out of there," Mayor Levine said about the 2016 camp cleanup. "And hundreds of needles."

Members of the Wolf Creek Community Alliance will be maintaining the trail and have already begun building portions of trail that travel closer to the creek.